These super fluffy pancakes are sure to be a showstopper at your next brunch party! This recipe is quick, easy, and doesn’t require any buttermilk!
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Life is all about yummy fluffy pancakes.
Admit it, a world without pancakes would be bleak, maybe not even worth living in. You love pancakes, don’t you? You do. It’s okay, I do too. My favourite thing about pancakes (other than eating them, of course!) is watching maple syrup drip off the edges of my pancake tower, like some sort of sun-kissed waterfall.
Fluffy pancakes are one of my all-time favourite Sunday morning breakfast treats. The problem is that a lot of great pancake recipes call for buttermilk. (Honestly, who keeps buttermilk at home? Is that a North American thing?)
Without it, you can end up with a flat, lifeless pancake that looks too much like a lost crepe. Here’s a quick and easy recipe to make super fluffy pancakes with ingredients you probably already have at home. Never buy that horrid box of premix again. Please.
Can you make Fluffy Pancakes without buttermilk?
In short, yes. This pancake recipe uses no buttermilk at all (it does require regular milk though). So, you may ask, what’s the deal with buttermilk? Well, it’s terribly in vogue when it comes to baking. And there’s a reason for it. The acidity in buttermilk helps the pancakes rise.
On the flip side, I’ve never known anyone to regularly stock up on buttermilk. In fact, until I moved to Canada, I had never even seen buttermilk… not even at a supermarket!
(If you’re ever in a real pinch – you can create your own buttermilk alternative by mixing a cup of milk with a tablespoon of white vinegar and letting it sit for 10 minutes. Perhaps less conventionally, you could also use a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice instead of vinegar. Neither option tastes as good as the real thing, but they’ll do the trick. Thankfully, with this recipe – you won’t need to!)
Now, if you do happen to have buttermilk, you can give this Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes recipe a shot!
Why are my pancakes flat? How can I make my pancakes fluffier?
There are a number of factors that can lead to your pancakes being flat. But here are the four horsemen of the pancake apocalypse (pancalypse…panpocalypse…pancakalypse…help):
- Overmixing your batter – overmixing your pancake batter will deflate a lot of the air bubbles in your batter, making it difficult for your pancakes to rise into the light and fluffy pancakes you want (the video in my recipe section is an example of this!). Secondly, it’ll develop gluten. And too much gluten will result in a tough, chewy pancake.
- Stale Baking Powder – baking powder typically has a shelf life of 9 months to a year. To check whether your baking powder is still fresh, simply stir half a teaspoon of baking powder into a cup of water. If you see an immediate reaction (it’ll fizz up, bestie!), then it’s still good to use. If not, you should consider replacing it.
- Humid Conditions – This is based on an observation made by many of my readers (you can see it mentioned in the comments section below). But a very humid kitchen results in a runnier batter, which means less fluffy pancakes. If you happen to be in a place that is very humid, try putting your batter in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to make sure it doesn’t become too fluid/runny.
- Not Letting Your Batter Rest – Letting your batter rest before cooking allows the starch granules in the flour to expand resulting in an airier pancake.
- The Violent Flip – Turn the pancakes over gently. Flipping them high into the air results in the air literally being squished out of them!
Also…make sure to relax, bestie. Making pancakes should be a pleasurable experience! And this fluffy pancake recipe is simple; it doesn’t require any fancy steps (like whipping egg whites into a meringue). Be mindful of the tips above, and pay attention to your heat management, and you’re sure to be fine.
(If you want to do a little reading, check out my How to Read a Recipe Post – it’ll help you understand the procedures and the measurements used in a recipe post, like this one!)
Of course, if you do end up burning your first pancake, just remember what they say: “Le première crepe est pour les chiens!” (A French saying meaning, “The first crepe is for the dogs!”).
Storage instructions
Though they are best served fresh and warm, these pancakes can be refrigerated in an airtight container for 2-3 days. Store your maple syrup separately (and not on top of the pancakes), so that it doesn’t soak through.
Other no-buttermilk pancake recipes
Here are four other amazing pancake recipes that don’t require any buttermilk at all. Each one is unique, and delicious!
- Lemon Mascarpone Pancakes – perfect for days when you’re looking to impress with an elegant pancake recipe.
- Strawberry Cheesecake Pancakes – this is the pancake you serve when you want everyone to spend the first 5 minutes of the meal taking photos of the food.
- Dutch Baby Pancake – a pancake with a twist! Quick and simple to make.
- Fluffy Japanese Pancakes – taking a bite out of these meringue-based babies is like eating a delicious cloud! (Yes, they spark joy.)
- Healthy Sweet Potato Pancakes – this gluten-free twist on pancakes is something you’re sure to love!
Fluffy Pancakes, Updated: What’s Changed?
If you’ve been visiting my blog for a while, you may realise that this is a republished version of one of my very early blog posts (also titled, “Fluffy, Fluffy Pancakes”, originally published: February 17th 2015). I’ve updated the post quite significantly.
While the recipe is the same great pancake recipe it’s always been, I’ve rewritten the post with the aims of addressing some of the major questions I’ve received from commenters over the last few years. If there’s anything you feel is still missing, please do let me know with a comment below.
I’ve also done my best to create a clearer, more readable post, while maintaining the gist and the feel of the original. (The original post was written quite some time back, it was mostly me rambling about how much I love pancakes!)
Helpful tools
Heads up! The following is an affiliate link. If you buy something using the link, I will receive a small commission. You won’t need to pay a penny more, but it’ll help keep my lights on! Thank you bestie, you rock!
Luckily, it doesn’t take much equipment to make perfect pancakes. It is however a lovely feeling to have all the right equipment. Here are a few little things that might make your pancake-making experience just that much sweeter.
- Silver Dollar Pancake Pan – if you want your pancakes to all look exactly the same.
- Zwilling J.A. Henckels Marquina Non-Stick Frying Pan – a good pan is crucial to properly cooking pancakes, and this one is sure to please.
While I’ve still got your attention, please do take a moment to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. Or you can subscribe to my mailing list – don’t worry, I’ll never give out your information or send you any spam. Thank you, bestie!
Let’s Reminisce
Three Years Ago: Baked French Toast
Two Years Ago: Cream Puff Swans (Choux Pastry)
One Year Ago: Homemade Spaghetti & Meatballs
📖 Recipe
Fluffy, Fluffy Pancakes
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 6–7 Pancakes 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
A surefire recipe to make fat and fluffy pancakes, without any buttermilk or special ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1 cup All-Purpose Flour, sifted
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- Pinch of Salt
- 2 tbsp White Sugar
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp Milk
- 1 Large Egg, beaten
- 2 tbsp Unsalted Butter, melted
- 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
- Canola Oil (or any other vegetable oil), for cooking
Instructions
- Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder into a bowl and mix well.
- In a separate bowl, mix the egg, milk, vanilla, and melted butter together. Be careful not to use hot, melted butter, as that may end up cooking your eggs!
- Pour the wet ingredient mixture into the dry ingredients and stir till mostly incorporated. The batter should be thick and a little lumpy, but without any visible streaks of flour. If it is too thick to work with, add a little milk. Set the batter aside for 5-10 minutes.
- Heat a heavy-bottomed, non-stick pan over a low-medium heat and coat it with oil. Use a 1/4 cup measure to scoop and drop the batter into the pan so that you get evenly-sized pancakes.
- Cook until the first side is golden brown, or until the top surface forms bubbles. Flip and repeat on the other side. Adjust heat accordingly. Serve while still hot.
- Category: Breakfast & Brunch
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: fluffy pancakes, fluffy pancake recipe, fluffy pancake recipie, fluffy fluffy pancakes, fluffy pancake, pancake recipe, pancakes for two, no buttermilk pancake, no buttermilk pancakes, fluffiest pancake, fluffy pancakes рецепт
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Hi Riz, Im Doing really Great With Your Recipe they All Turned Out Fine tasty And Fluffy I enjoyed Every Bite It Was Delicious The Best Recipe Ever. Thankyou For Not Being Selfish With Your Recipe As Some do. Stay Great, Stay Fine.
Hi Ruth! Thanks so much for your lovely comment. I’m very happy to share the recipes with you, and I’m very glad to hear you’re enjoying them! 🙂
I’ve been trying to convert the cups to grams and mls but I’m getting different conversion values from different websites! Can anyone help and tell me how much flour and how much milk is needed in metrics units please! Thanks x
Hi Syd, I’m not 100% sure on this…but I believe this would be about 210g of milk, and 120g of flour. Making sure you get the technique and tips/tricks section info correct will probably impact your results more than the exact gram amounts in this case. Good luck!
Hi, I tried your version but the conversion is wrong. I’ll re-try with these:
120 gr flour
180 ml milk
Thanks for letting me know, Ilaria…good luck!!! (As I mentioned earlier though, I think the difference will really be more about the technique)
Hey Ilaria,
I’ve been using these measurements and they came out perfectly:
130 g All-Purpose Flour, sifted
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
28 g White Sugar
180 ml Milk
1 Large Egg, beaten
28 g Unsalted Butter, melted
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
Thank you for sharing, Nat!
Yummy !! very fluffy and light!
Thank you for the recipe.
★★★★★
So happy you enjoyed it, Karen! Thank you for trying out these pancakes!
amazing recipe! we before found a different fluffy pancake recipe, but forgot what it was… this is even better anyway! very fluffy,
we hope to use some of your other recipes in future (:
do you know how to make crumpets? if so maybe you can put up the recipe (: (: (:
★★★★★
Ahh!! I’m so happy you enjoyed it! And yes! Please do try out some more recipes, I hope you enjoy those too! 🙂
Unfortunately, I don’t have a crumpets recipe yet…but it is something I have planned. Watch this space (but it’ll be in 2021 at some point)!
I tried this recipe today and it turned out perfect! Thank you!!
Woohoo!!! So happy to hear it!
Tried it this morning with my two toddlers. We all loved it. Fluffiest pancakes I’ve ever had. Followed the recipe throughout but added chocolate chips at the very end and briefly stirred through. Thank you so much.
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed it, Lujain!
Copied recipe for 1x exactly came out not fluffy but flat
★
Sorry to hear you had trouble with the recipe, Donna. Good luck for next time!
Best pancakes recipe ever! Thank you so much
Greetings from Paris xx
★★★★★
Thank you so much, Yas!! I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe.
And hello from Toronto! 🙂
This has become my go to recipe for pancakes!
Beautiful and fluffy every time.
My family thanks you!
★★★★★
Hi Redawna! I’m so happy to hear you’ve been enjoying them!! Thank you to you and your lovely family!
Since you’ve enjoyed these pancakes so much, please do try out any of my other recipes. There might be more you like! 🙂
Riz
OMGosh!!!! Best pancakes EVER!!! And your tips are great! I used the recipe and tips you said and they turned out AWESOME! Thank you!
★★★★★
Ah! So glad to hear you enjoyed it!! Wishing you many delicious pancake breakfasts!
I have been wanting a restaurant pancake recipe for a while. These definitely do it and are even better (fluffier). Restaurant pancakes to me are the kind that are spongy on top, that let the syrup soak in. All the pancakes we ever made at home were denser (good, but not the same).
Some notes on how I made mine:
* safflower oil instead of butter
* half and half instead of milk
* clear mexican vanilla
* sifted flour into cup and leveled off, no packing
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed it, Caleb! Thanks for sharing your notes! 🙂
Good recipe. Tastes great. Made a few times now. Not terribly fluffy, but not flat either. Definitely not as fluffy as in the photos.
★★★★
This is hands down, the absolute worst recipe blog over ever had the misfortune of reading. The amount of ads is just comical.
Awful. Absolutely awful. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Decent pancakes though
Great recipe. I add cashew pieces and my son requests these every week!!!!!
Ohhh I’ve never tried it with cashews. Thank you for sharing the idea, Keren!
I made a mistake in my comment. I do NOT use cashews. I use pecan pieces. That is what my son loves in these delicious pancakes!
Oooh! I see! I love pecan pieces too! Thank you for letting me know. Happy Holidays to you and yours, Keren!
Thank you for the recipe! It reminds me of the street food that I used to eat as a child. It’s called spider pancake. I burned the first three lol but others were safe and looked yummy.
So glad you enjoyed it, Lathifah! Spider pancakes sound so interesting, I’m going to look them up right now!
After making crepes (by default) I finally made my first pancakes. Thank you so much for all the tips. I did have to add quite a bit of milk, the mix looked more like a cakebatter than a pourable batter. Also found I had to turn the heat down lower to allow them to cook through without getting burned.
Thank you!
★★★★★
So glad to hear the tips were helpful to you, Martina! Wishing you many happy pancake days, and a lovely holiday season 🙂
Riz
Seriously good pancakes! They are regularly requested from my family. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Lau! So happy to hear everyone enjoys them! Happy Holidays to you and yours! 🙂
Hi actually. I just literally made these. Too much milk. And not enough flour. Them you used baking powder. They were flat asf. So I added 1/3 flour, and teaspoon of baking soda. Powder is just not acidic enough. It does not equal out to what you’d have from buttermilk.
Hi Samantha,
Sounds like something went wrong for you – unfortunately, I can’t say why the recipe didn’t work based on your comment. I’d suggest looking through the Why are my pancakes flat section to see if anything rings true for you.
You’re absolutely right that baking powder is not the same as buttermilk. It is not as acidic. But when working without buttermilk (as is the intention of this recipe), it’s your best simple option. And it certainly doesn’t need to result in flat pancakes! 🙂
(I don’t think baking soda has acidity to it…it’s just a sodium bicarbonate base, which requires an acid to be added, which is why it’s used so often alongside buttermilk.) Hope that helps! Happy Holidays
After trying so many failed attempts of making pancakes, I had completely given up the idea of making it again.
Thankfully today I stumbled upon your recipe and thought of giving it a final try. I was really amazed by how perfect the pancakes have come up. Soft, fluffy and perfect the way I always wanted. Thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful recipe 😊
Hi Fatema! So glad to hear you managed to make perfect soft and fluffy pancakes today!!! If you’re feeling a little adventurous, I’d suggest trying out the Lemon Mascarpone Pancakes recipe next!
Happy Holidays!
Riz
I have been using your recipe for fluffy pancakes and they always turn out great.
This morning I subbed the AP with whole wheat flour, added extra TBSPN milk and took sugar out to make mini pancakes for my almost 1-year-old ans she loves them. Thank you!
★★★★★
Hi Eugenia! Thank you so much for your comment! So glad you and your little one have been enjoying these pancakes!!! Happy New Year to you both!!!
Been looking for a great “fluffy pancake” recipe for a while. Followed this recipe to a “t”. Batter turned out like soup and pancakes were more like crepes. Had to doctor the recipe up to make them standup a little higher. I shouldn’t really have to say this but my search for absolutely delicious and fluffy pancakes continues.
★
Sorry to hear it didn’t work out as planned, Johnny! Hope you checked out the Why are my Pancakes flat section, and found some help there.
Best Fluffy Pancakes recipe EVER!! Thank you Riz for sharing and let me say, my 3yo son demolished these they’re THAT good!! Been looking for a decent recipe without buttermilk and this one rocks ❤ Perfect Pancakes for a Sunday treat 😍
Hello! So glad to hear you and your little one enjoyed these!!! Thank you for visiting Chocolates & Chai…and I hope you try out some more of the recipes too!
A perfect recipe. I used Bobs Red Mill gluten free flour and even added 1T of raspberry powder. Beautiful texture. Ty so much!
★★★★★
Thanks Alison! I LOVE the sound of adding some raspberry powder. I’d love to see a picture if you can share one on instagram. 🙂
This is an amazing recipe , the pancakes came out great . Looks yummy. Thank you .
That’s lovely to hear, Diana! Thank you for commenting!
Great recipe. Mine didn’t come out as fluffy as the pictures, but I used oil instead of butter. Would that make a difference in how fluffy/airy the pancakes are.
Regardless, great base recipe for easy pancakes!
★★★★★
Hi Steven,
Glad you enjoyed the pancakes! I’m not sure if switching the butter for oil would really affect the fluffiness all that much. I’d say that the main cause for most people is overmixing the batter.